Markham and Vaughan have made the first cut, along with other GTA communities, in Amazon’s decision on the site of a second North American headquarters.

The Toronto bid to host the American corporate giant’s second headquarters has reportedly made the shortlist of 20 cities – the only Canadian bid to do so.

Amazon, which has its global headquarters in Seattle, announced last year that it would build a second North American headquarters somewhere in Canada, the United States or Mexico, launching a bidding frenzy that exploded with hundreds of cities vying for the 50,000 jobs and billions of dollars in economic benefits that would accrue over time.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos gave no timeline for when the eventual winning bid would be selected, only providing a deadline for when the entrants had to be in, which was October 2017. Toronto, which provided a combined bid involving eight GTA sites, is considered one of the front-runners to land Amazon HQ2.

In addition to Markham and Vaughan, other sites in the Toronto combined bid include Milton, Burlington, Oakville, Mississauga, Brampton, Pickering, Ajax and Toronto.